Just Dance Now Lets You Tango with Your Smartphone

One of the first games Ubisoft showed off at their E3 press conference was this year’s addition to their Just Dance franchise. As the trailer rolled across my screen with bright lights, happy people with perfect lives dancing, and, —wait was that a rabbid?…I will admit, I zoned out a little bit. To me, Just Dance is a game I’m only familiar with because I have a younger sister who plays it with her friends, and much like any game with a number affixed to the game title, very little ever seemed to change in between releases.

So when Ubisoft Paris’ executive producer Jason Altman walked out at E3 and told the world that Just Dance was evolving to include smartphone integration, I sat up and started listening.

Altman announced a new game called Just Dance Now. By using smartphones in lieu of controllers, players will be able to sync their devices to a tablet, computer, or smart-TV and play Just Dance Now with their friends regardless of where they are, or how they are connected. The only things players will need is an internet connection, a smartphone and large-screen internet-connected device.

Most impressively, the Just Dance Now app is set to be free. Don’t get too excited though, I’m sure Ubisoft plans on putting a price tag on the vast majority of songs, but a handful probably will be free for anyone to try out the experience.

Ubisoft announced that while the forthcoming Just Dance 2015 will feature some of the year’s most popular songs, Just Dance Now will instead focus on the greatest hits of the past, though no word on specific songs just yet.

It’s worth pointing out that the reveal of Just Dance Now comes after Microsoft announced that it will stop bundling Kinects with Xbox One systems. The Kinect is an integral part of the Just Dance experience on Xbox One, but with Just Dance Now, players can bypass console use entirely.